Silver Hills CNC (23-24 April 2011)

A good weekend for the team.  We travelled just up the road to Silver Hills, Shane had four horses, Niki had two and Rachel and Soigne had one each. 

Shane had a good win on Statford Neo in the CNC2*, they finished on their dressage score.  The beautiful Il Vici had his first CNC2* start and really stepped up to the challenge, they were placed 2nd after the Dressage and Cross Country however an unfortunate rail in the showjumping dropped them to 4th.  Vici will drop back to the CIC1* next start at the Sydney World Cup event as the 2* there may just be a bit tough for his second start at that level.  Shane and Michelle Hasibar's Virgil were 2nd in the CNC1* and were awarded highest placed Warmblood in the class.  Virgil is really developing into a future star.  The lovely WP Sister Act placed 2nd in the Pre Novice, they finished on their impressive dressage score of 73%.

Niki and the 4yo Contador won the Prelim, leading from start to finish.  They scored 77% in the dressage and added just .8 time fault cross country.  Contador is a lovely horse for the future.  Niki also rode Lee Hokianga's Umunga in his first CNC1* start.  They finished in 5th place, Niki was disappointed with their dressage as they made several big mistakes which dragged their score down.  Cross country Umi jumped great and just incurred a few time penalties and one rail in the showjumping which was rider error.

Soigne had her lovely young horse Collateral Damage in the Prelim they went well but finished outside the placing's this weekend.  Rachel was having her first start on her new horse Duncan and it was a great outing for him.  Duncan went well in all phases and showed lots of promise for the future.

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Sydney Royal Show (19 April 2011)

Equestrian Australia and the Royal Show have worked together to create an eventing competition for the Royal Show.  the competition comprised of short dressage test in the morning which ranked the horses followed by a jumping course which included a mixture of cross country and showjumps against the clock.

Shane rode Statford Neo and APH Moritz in the class.  Neo did a good test but has not yet established half pass and flying changes so these movement pulled down his overall dressage score.  He ended the dressage in 9th position.  Moritz did a great test showing very good changes and lateral work, he scores 84% to be well in the lead after the dressage phase.

In the jumping Neo did a good round with 2 rails down and a few seconds over the optimum time.  This round was good enough to move him up to 5th place.  To make the optimum time you needed to travel quiet fast which made some of the horses a little less careful over the showjumps.  Moritz was last to go as he was the dressage leader.  He jumped a super round to be the only clear round and the only one to complete the course undertime, so he was the clear winner of the class.  He is now we believe qualified to take part in the Exhibition Eventing at Equitana later in the year.

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Kihikihi CIC - World Cup qualifier (New Zealand) (8-10 April 2011)

Shane is extremely please with Johnnie Walker's Arvey (aka Taurus) who had his first international trip.  They travelled to New Zealand for the Kihikihi World Cup qualifier.  This was Shane's second trip to Kihikihi, he took All Luck to the same competition in 2009.  The organising committee put together a wonderful competition and looked after us very well.  We were lucky enough to stay in a beautiful Wade Equine truck on the venue, it was very comfortable.....thanks Wade Equine! John Nicholson created a fantastic cross country track that was big, technical and imposing. 

Shane and Arvey put together a great test with no errors and some really fancy work.  Sadly they did not score as they had hoped and were 5 points off the leaders.  Shane really thought he should have been much closer to the leading score and many spectators and fellow competitors agreed.  Anyway on to the jumping!

Cross country Arvey and Shane had a 'life' early on the course at the very tough fence 3.  Arvey hit the C element, a very big brush apex quiet hard and Shane seemed to fly in the air.  Fortunately they landed together and carried on, for the rest of the course they travelled and jumped beautifully to cross the finish line 2 seconds under the optimum time to remain on there dressage score.  The following day Arvey jumped a super round of showjumping and just dragged out the top block of a skinny gate to add 4 faults to his score.  Overall Arvey finished in 4th place. 

Clarke Johnstone was the deserving winner on the lovely Orient Express, Chris Burton was 2nd and Clarke 3rd on his second ride.

Thanks to Jenna and Peter Mahoney who allowed Arvey and Niki to stay at their property in the few day before the event and also for helping with Arvey's travel to and from the event and airport.  

 Arvey will arrive back at Bimbadeen Park on Tuesday night.

Here are the links to Arvey's Dressage and jumping rounds

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Illawarra Dressage (3 April)

As a final preparation for Taurus' trip to New Zealand Shane and Arvey competed at the Illawarra Dressage competition at SIEC.  APH Moritz also took part in the competition.  They both competed in the two Medium classes.  Both horses put together very good tests.  In the 4A APH Moritz was the winner with Taurus in 2nd place in the 4B they swapped and Taurus had a win and Moritz was second.  A very pleasing result considering there where some very accomplished straight dressage horses in the competition.

Niki took Alex to his first dressage day and he placed 2nd in the 2A and 7th in the 1A.  Contador also came along for the experience and they placed 1st in the 1A and 6th in the 2A.